The Gathering of Many
by Dragonmaster870
Summary: 34 people. 17 universes. 17 pairs: a boy and a girl from each one. Someone wanted these 34 gathered in one place, but how, who, and why? Will they be able to satisfy their captor enough for him or her to send them back home? Rated T for innuendos, sexual themes (and maybe encounters), language, and Sakura Kyoko, Shiguma Rika, Yuuki Rito, Hyoudou Issei and Araragi Koyomi's behavior.
1. Chapter 1: Arrival

**Disclaimer: _I do not own Toradora!, Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (OreImo), Sword Art Online, Kiss x Sis, Shuffle!, the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Angel Beats!, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (Haganai), To LOVE-Ru, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Bakemonogatari, Toaru Majutsu no Index/Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, High School DxD, Higurashi, nor Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The rights to these series' are reserved to their respective owners. I only seek to have some fun with the characters I pulled from each universe, and I am not profiting financially from this fan fiction._**

**Chapter 1:** **Arrival**

* * *

I wake up to the sight of my sister's head on my chest, and nearly have a heart attack.

_What kind of eroge is this?_

Completely confused as to how I should react, a menu in my mind is displayed and displays three choices:

**A) Lay back down and wait for her to wake up.**

**B) Get up without disturbing her.**

**C) Kick her off of you and question her**

Although the third one sounds tempting to me, I had already chosen the option before when she forced me to play an eroge with her, and it resulted in a kick that sent me and the chair I was sitting in across the room. If she got that mad at something like that, then I don't even want to imagine what would happen if I did to her what I chose to do to the little sister in the game.

Ruling that option out, I scroll through the other two options. Option B would be the best course of action, but that's going to be kind of hard to do, considering the fact that her head and her arm are resting on my chest, and our legs are more or less intertwined. Option A is also a problem as well, because she wouldn't really take it well. Rather, she'd try to murder me emotionally and physically, and send me flying with one of the kicks she's bound to have learned from her best friend.

Sighing in defeat, I decide on option A simply because it takes less energy to do so. Turning my head to get a good look at where we are, I notice that we look to be on another school's campus. Like, a rich private school's campus. Seriously, the place is huge.

_Where the hell are we? _I wonder, and look down at my sister's sleeping face. It's hard to think that she acts like the host for a demon with a weakness for cute things and little sisters in her waking hours. I mean, sheesh. To be so cute, but to have such a cold streak when it comes to your own blood is ridiculous. At least she seems to be softening up around me. I mean, her insults aren't as venom-filled as before.

I rest my head on the ground, deciding to wait a few more minutes until I have to force her up myself. I want to postpone my suffering for as long as possible; this is just about the calmest my life has been in the last year or so, thanks to my little sister and her otaku friends.

Speaking of her friends...weren't we both with them before this? I think we were...we were...over at Saori's place...and...there was a...a storm. Yeah, that's right. There was a terrible storm, and Saori suggested we stay at her place while we waited for the storm to die down. Hours passed and eventually we just decided to stay the night, and we all crashed somewhere in Saori's place. Saori had her room, Kuroneko had the recliner, my little sister had the guest room, and me...I think I went to sleep on the couch.

_Assuming I didn't dream all of that, just where the hell are we? I'm pretty much clueless as to what's going on, but there has to be someone around her to answer my questions. Sorry, Kirino, but your time is up._

"Oi, Kirino! Wake up! We've got a problem!" I whisper-yell at her, but there's no response.

"Tch." _Fine then. I didn't want to have to resort to this, but you left me no choice. _"Kirino, if you don't wake up right now, I'll grope your breasts!"

_I'm a terrible person! Why would I think of something like that?_

_Because you actually are the pervert everyone's accusing you of being._

_Shut up, me!_

_..._

_Great, now I'm arguing with myself. I think all of my friends' antics are starting to get to me._

I put my thoughts on mute as I collect myself, then I turn the volume back on and begin to think of ways to wake her up besides groping her.

_Now...how to get her awake. I really don't want to have to grope her; I value my life. Maybe...maybe...maybe she'll wake up if I kiss her? No...no, no! Why would I even think of that? That'd be like buying a ticket to hell!_

Sighing again in defeat, I look at her again and continue to think of how to wake her up with much less enthusiasm than I had before. After a bit of searching, it finally comes to me.

_That...actually could work._

I clear my throat and say, "Oi, Kirino! The new episode of Meruru is on!"

Her bright blue eyes snap open, filled with an excitement she only gets when faced with her otaku hobbies.

"Yay! Meruru!" She sits up and looks around excitedly, but after a few seconds realizes that Meruru's not on. There's not even a television to watch it on. She glares at me with eyes filled with malicious intent, and I gulp.

"N-nice to see you awake, Kirino. Look, we're in kind of a situation right n—"

"Kyousuke...why was I lying down next to you?"

"I'm wondering the same thing."

She takes a moment to inspect herself, and then turns and squints at me. "Which school's uniforms are these?"

I look down and see the unfamiliar black uniform. Seriously, it's black everything. As for Kirino, she's wearing a khaki blazer with black cuffs and interior, a white blouse with a ribbon tied into a bow around a ruby button on her collar, a black pleated skirt, white knee socks and dark brown penny loafers.

From my experience, I can tell that these are high school uniforms. But there are a couple problems with that. One, Kirino's still in middle school. And two, it looks too fancy for one that I could go to. Kirino, maybe, given her talents, but not me. I could never have landed in a place like this.

So yeah, yet another problem with our situation.

"Where are we?"

I sigh. "Like I'd know. Let's just look around and see if we can find any answers."

She continues to glare at me, but eventually she says, "Fine, let's go," and begins walking towards the school.

_Even with this turn of events, she still insists on acting like this._

Despite my inner complaints, I get up and follow her.

* * *

_Why does it have to be him? Why do I have to be stuck with him?  
_

I'm literally overflowing with anger right now, looking at the gray-haired boy that was lying down beside me. He...his obliviousness has fucked so much stuff up that it isn't even funny. Actually, his existence in general is a disaster in itself.

"S-Sakura-san?"

I stare at him and ponder beating the mofo over the head with my spear, but think better of it, as that'd probably get my a lot of hate back home.

Speaking of location...

"Oi, Kamijou. Where the hell are we?"

"H-huh? How would I know that?"

"Dunno. I just had a feeling you'd know something." I take a good look at the place we're in. We look to be on the grounds of some massive school, and Kamijou and I both have our regular attire replaced with whatever uniform belongs to the school. He's in some bland all black uniform, and I'm in a khaki blazer with dark-brown cuffs and interior, along with a ribbon tied into a bow, and I have a black pleated skirt with black knee socks and the dark brown penny loafers to complete the schoolgirl set.

"How do I look, Kamijou?"

"Sakura-san...could you get your priorities straight, please? We're in an unknown place wearing unfamiliar clothes with no clue how we got here! Don't you think it's a bit weird?"

"Well...yeah. But I've been in worse situations, you know."

He frowns at me and says, "Sometimes I wonder just what your everyday life is like."

If my glare could get any more intense, it would have right then. "You really, _really_ don't want to know. You wouldn't have been able to handle it."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Like I said, you don't want to know." I take in our surroundings, and realize that we're trapped down in Schooyl-McNameless' outdoor amphitheater by a truly infernal device. One created by humans many, many years ago with the simple and pure intentions of making climbing easier, but unfortunately it has recently fallen into the hands of evil. This such invention goes by the name of...

_Stairs._

Well, most of the 'stairs' are actually seats, but both of them can serve as the other. That doesn't change the fact that I don't like the whole 'stair' function.

Even if I don't like it, I figure I'll have to brave this challenge in order to get some answers to the _many_ questions I have. Otherwise I'll have to waste away here with Kamijou, because I know his pussy ass won't leave without someone he knows to back him up.

_That's just your prejudiced self talking, and you know it._

"Shut up!"

Kamijou looks at me like I'm insane. "Sakura-san...I wasn't talking..."

_Shit! I need to save this somehow!_

"W-well you are now! So shut up and follow me, Kamijou! We're going to go get some answers!"

And with that, I take off running up the steps.

"H-hey, Sakura-san! Wait up!"

I look back and grin maliciously at him. "Rule one of riding the Kyoko-train; you've gotta be able to keep up!" I then leap the last six or so steps and wait for the gray-haired boy to reach the top.

When he does, he rests his hands on his knees and struggles to catch his breath. "W-what...are you...trying...to do...?Kill...me...?"

I wave a hand dismissively. "No, no. Nothing serious like that. I was just sort of hoping you would fall and fuck up your arm again."

Immediately his body goes rigid, his breathing straightens out, he seems to be surrounded by an evil and there's a fiery look in his eyes that doesn't match his exhausted appearance in the least.

_Too far?_

_Yeah, definitely._

He starts walking slowly towards me, and raises his right hand. I take a step back in response, suddenly intimidated by the normally-docile boy's change in behavior. Just when I think he's about to hit me, though, he lowers his hand and takes a deep breath, then says in a dejected tone, "You really know what buttons to push, don't you, Sakura-san?"

I laugh nervously, and run a hand through my ponytail. "I guess so...Well anyway, let's continue. We have a lot on our agenda, you know."

He says, "Yeah, whatever," as I turn around, and I don't even take two steps before I'm knocked on my but by...a noun, I guess.

"Ow..." I mutter as I push myself off of the ground, and look at said noun that knocked me down: a boy, around sixteen or seventeen, I guess, with bluish-purple hair and the eyes to match. And draped over his shoulder is...

A halberd.

A motherfucking _halberd_.

"Tch...Watch where you're going, bitch!"

My left eye twitches and my body goes rigid like Kamijou's did in response to the insult. "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken. Because you _definitely_ weren't talking to _me._"

He scoffs and sets the tip of his halberd on the ground beside him with a loud _clang_. "You know who I was talking to, _bitch_." He practically spits the word at me this time.

I clench my teeth and seriously consider beating _him_ over the head with my spear, or rather, cut him open with it, but I decide to give him one last chance. "C'mon, say it again. I _dare you_."

"Sakura-san..."

"Can it, Kamijou."

The purplette chuckles. "Heh, does talk like that turn you on, _bitch?_"

I let out a little laugh of my own before I summon my soul gem and from that my spear, to which he responds to with a smirk. "Geez, if a fight's what you wanted, you should've just came out and said it."

"Well said," he responds and then chuckles again, readying himself and gripping his weapon with both hands.

Then both of us charge.

* * *

"Kyon...where are we?"

I sigh in response to the brown-haired girl's question and resume my walk. "Yes, Haruhi, because I would definitely know where we are right now."

"C'mon, that was a serious question!"

I cock an eyebrow at her. "And that was a serious answer."

I swear, this girl calls herself the leader of the SOS Brigade, but when a completely unexpected situation shows up, she breaks down. Enter Suzumiya Haruhi, the eccentric ace of North High, who is interested only in the supernatural and the generally impossible. All stuff that I had given up on, until she showed up and turned my life upside-down. Now me and the supernatural are on a first-name basis, in the shape of the members of the SOS Brigade: time traveler Asahina Mikuru, alien Nagato Yuki, esper Koizumi Itsuki, and Haruhi, who just so happens to be a reality warper.

Speaking of which, is she responsible for this? We woke up side-by-side on the grounds of an unfamiliar school, wearing unfamiliar uniforms belonging to said school, with absolutely no idea as to how we got there.

"Please let this not be another closed space..." I mutter, referring to the closed pocket realities Haruhi has trapped me in, once upon a time.

"Hey, Kyon! There's people up ahead!"

I look up and see five people. Three of them are standing stock-still; two boys, one younger with grey eyes and hair and the other with black hair and eyes, and a girl with orange hair and teal eyes. The other two are engaged in what looks like a battle to the death with pole arms; a redhead girl with a spear and a bluish-purple haired boy with a halberd.

A freaking _halberd_.

"Wow~!" Haruhi exclaims, staring at the two combatants with an excited gleam in her eyes.

I sigh again and grab her by the collar as she starts to walk forward. "How about _not_ walking towards the people with the weapons?"

She responds with wriggling out of my grasp and getting closer regardless, though still giving the brawlers a wide berth. She then proceeds to walk around them and pretending to be snapping pictures with a camera. "Hey, Kyon! You think if we could get them to reenact this and use it in our movie?"

My eye twitches at the absurdity of her statement. I mean, should our movie for the school festival _really_ be our top priority right now?

Instead of answering her, I decide to simply watch as the battle intensifies. The boy thrusts forward and the girl holds her spear vertically and deflects the point off of the handle, then follows through with an upward slash. He hops backwards and then winds up and swings his halberd as if it were a baseball bat, and the girl flies back, her attempt to block foiled by the boy's strength. She skids to a stop after about ten feet or so and readies herself again, this time by resting the spear on her shoulders and draping her arms over it, kind of like the Scarecrow in the _Wizard of Oz_ is when we first see him.

_What? What is she doing?_

Turns out she was prepping for another attack, as she _snaps the spear_ into pieces connected by chains and then swings at the boy, who was running full speed at her. He looks just as surprised by the weapon's sudden transformation, and as a result takes the whole force of the blow, sending him flying backwards and his halberd...forward?

I follow the halberd's arc to where I think it's going to land, and see the orange-haired girl and the black-haired one.

I cup my hands around my mouth and yell, "Hey! Watch out!"

They both look up and the boy reacts quick enough to get them out of the way right as the polearm buries itself in the ground.

I release a breath I didn't know I was holding, apparently relieved, but I can guess it's nothing in comparison to the relief those two actually feel.

Meanwhile, the girl's spear returns to its intended form and advances on the purplette, who's hunched over and clutching his stomach. She draws back her spear, he stares hard at her and looks to say something, which causes her to shake violently.

_Just what did he say to make her react like that?_

She begins the attack to off him, but before the attack can connect a third party—the gray-haired boy—runs up and shoves his arms up under her armpits and holding her just barely off of the ground.

"Gah! Damn it, Kamijou, get off of me!"

_I suppose that's my cue...time to stop this._

I run forward right as the other boy raises himself off of the ground. He winds up, preparing to use her as a punching bag, but before he gets the hit to connect, I manage body-check him. He grunts in surprise and abruptly leaves his feet, rolling over and off the steps of the school's outdoor amphitheater. Thank god for private schools.

I sigh, silently congratulating myself and turning towards the redhead, but instead see Haruhi staring me dead in the face.

"Kyon! That. Was. So. AWESOME!"

I laugh nervously, not entirely sure if she's talking about their fight or me sending the purplette off of the edge. "I really don't think that's the right word."

"Sure it is! Anyway, do you think we could get those two to reenact this once the grapehead gets back up here?"

I open my mouth to respond, but before I can say anything, I hear a yelp coming from the gray-haired boy as the redhead kicks him in his shin. "Kamijou, you made me lose my kill. You know what you have to do know, right?"

He gulps and takes step back. "N-no..."

"You have to take responsibility. Let me kill you, and then we're even!" She declares, then lunges at him. He steps back just enough so that her fingers graze his shirt, but he trips over his own feet and falls backward...

Right into the halberd.

Almost immediately after, there's a short gasp that comes from my right. I look over and see the orange-haired girl who almost got impaled staring in horror down the steps-slash-seats of the outdoor amphitheater. The black-haired guy that's accompanying her is also staring with his mouth agape at whatever it is that's down there and the 'Kamijou' kid, who's head is split in two, courtesy of the halberd and the redhead.

Then my mouth looks to be 'courteous' enough to allow me to lose my lunch on the ground, nearly splattering on Haruhi's shoes.

"My god, that's terrible," Haruhi mutters.

"Y-yeah." I then look down the steps to see just what it is the other two are staring at, and witness _my_ handiwork. The purplette is lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs with his neck twisted at an odd angle.

"Shit," The redhead and I say simultaneously.

"C-couldn't have said it any b-better myself," the black-haired boy adds.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, time to get this out of the way now because the story will probably not cover most of this; exactly where in the timeline of each anime are the characters from? Here are these six's times:**

**Kousaka Kyousuke and Kousaka Kirino from _OreImo_ come from around the time Kyousuke has his party at his apartment when he was living alone to focus on his studies.**

**Kamijou Kyousuke and Sakura Kyoko from _Puella Magi Madoka Magica _are from a non-canonical timeline where the girls all beat Walpurgis Nacht and Kyousuke interacts normally with them, especially with Sayaka and Kyoko, and is completely aware of the fact that they are magical girls.**

**Kyon and Suzumiya Haruhi from _The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya _come from immediately after the events of the movie _The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya_.**

**With that little bit of information out of the way, see y'all next time!**


	2. Chapter 2: Reveal

**Chapter 2: Reveal**

* * *

[Cue Soundtrack: Zannenkei Rinjinbu (Hoshi Futatsu Han) – Marina Inoue ,Kanae Itō, Nozomi Yamamoto, Misato Fukuen, Kana Hanazawa, and Yuka Iguchi]

"Rika, are you absolutely positive that you have nothing to do with this?"

"Yes, Kodaka-senpai, I'm positive. This predicament of ours is not of my design," Rika responds calmly as she continues searching for our objective, the principal's office, as well as her own, which is her signature lab coat.

"Alright, alright, I believe you," I say, and I scratch the back of my head. "But we should really focus on one thing, rather than two. I'm pretty sure you're disturbing those classes by shoving your head into every one we come across."

"So what?" She brushes some of her brown hair out of her face and stares at me with a fire in her eyes I last saw not too long ago. "If whoever is behind this didn't take my lab coat, or better yet, not have even messed with us in the first place, then none of this would be happening!"

"Okay, Rika, I understand. Can we please just focus?"

"I _am _focused! On finding my damn lab coat!" She throws open the door to another classroom, steps inside, pans the room, then yells out in frustration and storms out, leaving the door open.

I sigh at her behavior, semi-afraid she'll turn her anger back to me and try to run me into the dirt like she was doing an hour or two ago, except this time with her bare hands. Earlier the girl was mad at me for...obliviousness. Selective obliviousness. If anything came up that had to do with love in the 'harem' I had inadvertently formed back home, I pretended to not be aware of it. And Rika was the only person who realized what I was doing, and promptly decided to grind me to a pulp because of it. But, in her defense, I pretty much deserved it by that point.

I close the door to the classroom she stormed, and then the other two she assaulted as well, and when I look up, the girl is already at the end of the hallway.

"Hey, Rika! If you're not going to focus, could you at least slow down so I can keep up with you?"

"I'm supposed to be the weak one," she yells down the hallway and continues her raid. "Is this really the limit of your ability, senpai?"

"No," I respond. Jeez, I know she's in a bad mood, but to take it out on me? That's unfair. "I just think we'll be able to better assess our situation if you slowed down a bit."

She stops in the middle of the hallway and whirls around to look at me again. "Then just go without me. I'll rendezvous with you later."

I shake my head. "No can do, Rika. We're sticking together, and we're going to go find the principal's office now because we've wasted enough time trying to find your lab coat—which is obvious by this point wasn't brought here with you." I grab the practically steaming girl by her arm and drag her along, not giving her a chance to protest.

Surprisingly the only kind of response I get from her is an aggravated sigh; she seems to begrudgingly let me lead her along.

After about five minutes of searching filled with Rika's vulgar gripes and complaints, we finally find the Principal's office at the end of the hallway.

"We finally found it..."

"Yeah, we did," Rika says grumpily. "Now let's hurry up and go so I can ask him for a labcoat."

"Your priorities are pretty skewed, you know that?" _I don't even get what she's complaining for...I mean, I know she considers the labcoat part of her image, but she looks pretty good in that uniform..._

I look up to find a _very_ red-faced Rika, and instantly I'm informed of my crime. "K-K-Kodaka-senpai!"

"Oh crap...I said all of that out loud again, didn't I?"

"Y-yeah." She fools around with her collar and says, "Sh-shall we go in?"

"Sure," I say, then reach for the door.

_*Click*_

_*Creak*_

"Kodaka-senpai!" Rika yells, then yanks me by the arm. I feel an impact in my left shoulder though, and hear a loud crack as I fly through the air and smack into the wall.

"Ugh...shit..." I mutter, then attempt to push myself up, but I instead just fall on my side. "What the hell was that?"

"K-K-K-K-Ko-Kodaka-sen...pai..." Rika starts, on the ground beside me and staring at my shoulder in horror.

"Huh?" I look down at my left shoulder and see a few red-covered white...shafts of something poking out from my shirt.

I stare at the site in confusion, but eventually what just happened comes to light.

"Oh...god, no..." I start to hyperventilate, stare dumbstruck at the injury. "Ah...ah...ah..."

Rika stands up, shaking. "H-hold on, K-Kodaka-senpai. I'll go get some h-help," she assures me, then goes over to the booby-trapped door to the principal's office and starts pounding on it, reaching around the giant pendulum-hammer that apparently hit me. "S-someone, anyone! We need help! Someone's hurt!"

_Calm down, Kodaka. It doesn't even hurt right now. You're fine. You're fine. Just ignore it until help comes._

I repeat the mantra in my head, trying to take my mind off of the fact that I probably just shattered my shoulder. I focus on repeating it and staring at various spots in the hallway: the linoleum floor, the fluorescent lights, Rika's legs, et cetera.

After a few excruciating moments of playing pretend, the door to the room opens and a auburn-haired boy comes shuffling out, looking at the girl with a melancholy expression. "What? Who's hurt," he asks almost as if he were bored.

Rika points to me, and his eyes widen when he looks at my mangled state. "Oh my god..."

A blue-haired boy peeks his head out of the door to look at me and covers his mouth in disgust. "Geez. That's pretty gnarly..."

_Neither of them...look like the principal of this school..._

Finally, a purple-haired, turquoise-eyed girl wearing a beret shoves them both out of the way so she could step out into the hallway, and looks in my direction. Instead of responding like those two, though, she says, "Looks like you're new here since you tried to come to this place. What's your name?"

"H-huh?"

"What's. Your. Name? Was that clear enough for you?" she asks like I'm the one at fault for being curious as to why she isn't helping me out.

"Ha-Hasegawa Kodaka."

"Well, Hasegawa-san, welcome to the afterlife."

Rika gags. "Wh-_afterlife? _How can you joke around at a time like this? Kodaka-senpai is hurt!"

She waves it off. "He'll be fine. Besides, there's nothing really that I can do. Of course, you could take him to the infirmary, but the most you'll be able to do is try to sleep through it."

"There's not even a nurse," the blue-haired boy adds.

"Then call an ambulance or something! We can't just do nothing!"

"Sure, I can do that. Otonashi, Hinata, let me know when you find a phone," she commands the boys on either side of her.

"Why should I," the two of them say near-simultaneously.

"Because I'm your leader, and you're supposed to listen to what I say!"

Rika sighs while the three of them begin their argument and she spins on her heel, walking towards me. "Come on, Kodaka-senpai, let's go." She holds out her hand and I take it, making an effort to pull myself up with the least amount of pain possible.

Once I'm up, Rika drags me off to find some help. _Thank you, Rika. I owe you one._

"Hey!"

Rika turns around at the purplette's voice. "What?"

"I think I may know of a way to heal him."

She clenches her jaw and narrows her eyes at the girl. "What is it?"

She reaches down into her skirt and pulls out a pistol.

A fucking _pistol._ "Rika, I already know where she's going with this. We're dealing with a psychopath; we need to go _now_!"

_BANG!_

We hear a crunch behind us as a bullet buries itself in the wall.

She waves the smoking gun in front of her. "If you stay still and let me hit you, you'll be fine in about an hour."

"Don't you mean 'dead'? People usually die when their shot in vital areas, you know," I retort as I begin to inch away.

The auburn-haired boy sighs and says, "There's no use arguing with her. Either let her shoot you or run."

It should be pretty obvious what choice we made.

* * *

[Cue Soundtrack: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – Eiko Shimamiya]

My name is Furude Rika and my patience has worn thin.

I was simply enjoying my club activities with my friends after school, but then the world got distorted and I passed out.

I woke up on the grounds of this unfamiliar school beside one such member of the club, Maebara Keiichi, and now we're wandering around the campus trying to find out just what's going on.

What's more is we came across another boy-girl pair: a boy named Takasu Ryuuji and a tiny girl named Aisaka Taiga. I should add that the boy is rather scary-looking, and the girl is my height (but surprisingly seventeen years old) and is needy as all get out.

You may wonder how I've come to that second conclusion. Well, as cold to the boy as she is, she's been doing nothing but asking him to do something about their situation.

It's here that I found out that the Takasu boy isn't as scary as I first thought. He looks like a delinquent, but has a heart of gold. Though he can't do anything about the situation, he's doing his best to assure her that things will be okay. I also happened to find out that he probably dotes on her too much, regardless of whatever relationship they have.

I tighten my grip on Keiichi's shoulders as he turns a corner while carrying me, and Keiichi suddenly stops as we hear a loud bang and a crunch in the wall behind us.

A second later, someone barrels into us and sends us tumbling.

_Ow...what the hell was that?_

Now for the censored version: "Owie...What happened...?"

Keiichi, however, gives up completely on a censor. "Fucking hell, that hurt! What in the-oi, are you okay?"

I look at the collection of bodies sprawled in front of me: Keiichi, a brown-haired girl donning a ponytail, and a boy with brown hair at his roots and ends, but is blonde the rest of the way through. It kind of makes it look like he's failed at dyeing it blonde.

_Don't tell me...another delinquent? _

The brunette gets up with a panicked look on her face, looking back at the purple-haired girl with the smoking gun that's walking menacingly towards us and down to the boy with the color-conflicted hair, pleading, "Get up, Kodaka-senpai!"

The boy stirs, pushing himself off of Keiichi favoring his right arm, not even letting his left arm even touch the ground.

And then I see why.

"HII-" I squeak before abruptly covering my mouth, looking at what I can guess is a completely shattered shoulder.

Keiichi sends to have noticed as well, but before he can let out a proper reaction, he grasps the brunette by the hand and darts off in the direction we just came from, almost repeating the incident with Keiichi and I with Takasu and Aisaka and yelling, "You four, run!"

The four of us take one look at the dissonantly serene purple-haired girl with a gun and decide it would be in our best interests to follow in their footsteps.

"Keiichi-kun!"

The brown-haired boy nods, getting up as fast as he can and scoops me up in a bridal carry then running down the hallway after that Kodaka boy and his brunette companion, Takasu and Aisaka doing similarly as the girl practically leaps onto the boy's back in a fashion that reminds me strangely of someone riding a horse, or maybe a master riding their servant in some strange S&amp;M play.

Another gunshot rings through the hallway, and I can see a blur rush past Aisaka, and she yelps in response.

She digs her heels into Takasu's side, causing him to yelp as well and solidifying the image of an equestrian. "Run faster, Ryuuji!"

He looks up at her with an exhausted and peeved face which seems to be even scarier because of his eyes. "No matter how fast I run, Taiga, I can't outrun bullets!"

"Well you can try," she contests, digging her heels into his sides again and this time succeeding in not only making him yelp but making him speed up as well, managing to overtake Kodaka at the front.

Which leaves us in last, closest to the barrel of that gun that that purplette's firing off like a maniac.

I look up at the boy carrying me and see a face that shows genuine struggle, like he's having trouble carrying a person and running at the same time, despite my low weight.

I decide to give him some words of encouragement. "Come on, Keiichi! Is this the extent of your ability? Are you going to let us die here, at the hands of some psychopath with a gun?" _Like how we were hunted down by Takano in one of the other timelines?_

"Like hell I will!" He yells, steeling himself and pushing himself beyond his limits, catching up with the Kodaka boy and his partner, who both look to be on the brink of collapse, though the boy more from pain than exhaustion.

The two boys lock eyes, and as if by some unspoken code between presumed troublemaker and an actual one, they further push themselves and manage to catch up with Takasu and Taiga.

_Alright, we can make it..._

* * *

[Cue Soundtrack: Pre-Parade – Rie Kugimiya, Eri Kitamura, and Yui Horie]

My eyes focus on a possible way to save our hides, but it's a bit of a risk, and definitely not guaranteed to work. But when faced with imminent death and a chance for survival, you take it, no matter how small the chance is.

"Hey, everyone," I call out to the two pairs to my left: the Kodaka boy and the brunette with him that he has by the hand, and the Keiichi boy carrying the little blue-haired Rika in a bridal carry.

They all turn their heads and I motion with my own to a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall at the end of the hallway.

"Taiga and I are going to distract her with that; you find us a place to hide!"

They all show some form of acknowledgement and I race forward with Taiga once again, using 200-percent of my leg strength to get ahead of the others and reach the red tool, removing Taiga from my back and picking the red tool up off of its hook fastening it to the wall.

I point the nozzle at the approaching girl as the others turn left down the corridor; a dead end however there are about four doors down that hallway, and hopefully at least one of them is unlocked and we can hide their or at least turn the tide in our favor.

I lean in to my feisty companion and ask, "Taiga, do you think you can cut or puncture this with your wooden sword?"

She looks incredulously at me. "Did you forget that we woke up in an _unfamiliar place_ with _none _of our things?"

_Oh._

"No, not really, I was just hoping you'd managed to find one while we were looking around the school..."

"And just where would you expect me to have picked one up, considering I've been with you the whole time—look out!"

She pulls me by the arm with a strength that she normally doesn't have, and I lose my grip on the tool in surprise just as we hear another shot go off.

The two of us tumble and fall down top of each other as a '_clink_' sound was heard and their vision is covered in white as the fire extinguisher explodes from a bullet piercing its hull.

Ignoring Taiga's slightly alluring position and facial expression beneath me, I pull her up and begin to lead her down the hall where the others went, happy that the diversion worked better than I anticipated.

Then another gunshot runs through the hallway and I feel an impact in my leg, forcing me to the floor.

_What the hell?_

I try to stand back up but fall down, this time much more uncomfortably.

"Ryuuji," Taiga mutters as I look down at my leg and the only thing that comes to mind when I see the bullet wound is: "I wonder what Kushieda-san would say if she saw this..."

I can practically see the vein bulging in her forehead as she looks at me utterly peeved and says, "_That's _what you're worried about? Are you brain-dead?"

"No, not really..." I mutter slowly, taking deep breaths doing my best to keep calm. "It's just, like, what's the proper thing to say in response to being shot?"

"Again, _that's_ what you're worried about? Just shut up and crawl your way down to where Maebara-kun is," she commands with an exasperated tone, pointing to where Keiichi is beckoning to them in the doorway of one of the classrooms.

I groan, both in pain and from the thought of having to cover all of that distance in my condition. However, when your life is at stake, you have to do what you have to do.

"Taiga, go on to the room now. I'll meet you there," I say, motioning to Keiichi and mouthing 'Taiga's coming first'.

Taiga, after looking at me with a worried expression for a few moments, he's my request and takes off down the hallway, and as she gets about halfway there I start my advance as well, army-crawling down the hallway and hoping to any and all gods that our female assailant is still discombobulated.

Taiga makes it to the door and Keiichi and her urge me on as quietly as they can, something which I wish I could respond to, but I'm crawling as fast as I can.

Despite the painfully slow pace I'm forced to move at, or perhaps my mind's perception of it, I'm able to make it to the door without the slightest sign of our pursuer. As I reach the door, Taiga and the brunette with Kodaka drag me into the room, in an understandable rush, and Keiichi closes the door as quickly and quietly as he can and then leans against it, sighing and saying, "Alright, we should be safe here."

"Not without a way to lock it we won't," the brunette says, moving away from me and searching probably for the key to it. As is true for all schools, there's really no way to lock the doors without the key for safety reasons, and the only people that would have it would be faculty. I suppose we shouldn't expect something convenient like the key laying around or something similar.

Across the room, Furude is doing some similar rummaging around, especially in big, hollow spaces like under the teacher's desk, a supply cabinet, and even inspecting the air vent on top of the cabinet by standing on a chair.

"What are you doing, Rika," Keiichi asks her, looking with a mix of curiosity and worry at the young girl.

"Looking for places to hide," she says, pulling off the grate for the vent after having undone the screws with a screwdriver she found in the cabinet, "She might look and check through all of the rooms to find us, if she has as much of a determined personality as you, sir."

"From what you said I guess he's pretty damn determined. Let's hope she's not the same," Kodaka says from across the room in a chair.

As this fact dawns on us, I can feel at least my heart fall into my stomach, and with that came another realization that made my heart drop down even farther, to the point that it would probably have left a crater in the floor if I was able to stand up.

"Um," I start, looking around for the the hiding spaces that the blue-haired girl already checked out and see only three for the six of us. "We all can't fit in those hiding spots," I point out, my voice shaking a bit from the unrest this revelation caused.

The girl looks down and steps off of the chair, moving it and opening the cabinet again and looking again. "If we really try, we could get two people or so in here. Maybe even three if all three of us gir—"

The door slams open and we hear a grunt as Keiichi loses the place he was leaning on.

However, the person we see is not the person that was pursuing us. Rather, it's a boy with auburn hair and burgundy eyes and one with blue hair and matching eyes.

I'd never seen these guys before, however there seemed to be some people in the room who did. A look of distress flashes across Kodaka's and the brunette's faces and the two of the them go rigid at their appearance, Kodaka standing up from his chair and moving in front of the girl.

"How'd you find us," he asks, his arm swaying slightly with the sudden movement he made and him gasping in response.

The blue-haired boy points at the ground, and we take in the red trail on the ground. "He kind of led us right to you guys."

_S-shit...__So it's my fault?_

"Sorry about this. I would try to explain things now, but it would be easier if we waited till afterwards," the redhead says, and pulls out a gun from his pants.

Everyone audibly gasps, and my eyes widen as he points it to me and the blue-haired boy points his towards Kodaka.

No one can think to move, not even Keiichi, who has the best chance of disarming them or at least throwing them off-balance since he's right underneath them but when his body asked him whether to fight or flee, he went with a third option and chose to freeze instead. Just like the rest of us.

The redhead averts his gaze from me and pulls the trigger, and everything goes black.

* * *

**So...yeah. That happened. I have nothing to say about that pause except that this isn't my main story.**

**Anyway, maybe it would make more sense to have one of the crossover categories be Angel Beats since it's set here, but then again Kamijou Kyousuke, Sakura Kyouko, Maebara Keiichi, Furude Rika, Kamijou Touma, and Misaka Mikoto are sort of the main characters of this story, despite them getting about the same screentime. See you guys next time, with a new set of characters in another dilemma.**


End file.
